[sjobe2503]

Hi all
Being a Yorkshire man I look at alternatives for things,after looking on line and forums about front t4 wings rusting and the reasons why I had a look at various kits available and decided to make my own.
I am a Sparks so I have these things in my garage.
Parts
1 x 20mm female adapter
1 x 20mm flexible conduit
1 x Glue
Photos attached
13 new items by Steve J

 

[dossbag]

Nice, but just a thought, would a smooth bore conduit not be better?, is there not the possibility that small debri etc, might become trapped in between the ridges and over time build up and block the drain, especially along the more horizontal sections. Just a thought.

 

[sjobe2503]

Could be a possibility but it is a 20mm pipe and you could put a hose pipe in it and flush it out from time to time

 

[rc_tech]

About 4 years ago I did the exact same thing with the exact same components. Look what happened to mine:

It had quite a long root too. True it's been sat for about a year and I haven't looked at it in a month.

It's great for draining just water but you get just a few leaves or pine needles in there and you have to hose it out. Still much better than letting in flow into the sills.

 

[Or_GazM]

I thought only T3s used "Flower Power"......

 

[rc_tech]

I pulled that plant out 'cos I don't do 'weed'.

 

[sjobe2503]

I've got some roundup in my garage just in case 😇

 

[shankalanks]

About 4 years ago I did the exact same thing with the exact same components.

Hullo rc - I was hoping someone who’d done this before would say how well it worked. Obvs it’s a bit difficult as less happens if it’s all going well.
Soooo do you reckon it’s definitely worth doing so long as you flush it through every so often?
Other obvious question that never gets answered is what sort of sealant is needed when you put it back together?

 

[Dubnity]

My T4 already had 2 drain holes in the tops of the front wings and when it rains it drips out from the bottom of the engine protector pan and when I first had it I thought I had a coolant leak

 

[rc_tech]

Those holes are present in every T4, this drain pipe just utilises those holes. Without them the water coming off the roof and windscreen drips into the inner wings and rusts out the front sections. All soil, dirt, seeds etc also gather in there and over 20 years it creates a little ecosystem complete with grass, flowers and bugs. The soil also allows dripping water to run backwards into the front arch holes making it rust even faster from the inside.

The sealant I used was polyurethane body sealant as I was doing other welding at the time. You could also use Sikaflex if you want - whatever remains flexible and waterproof will do. Don't use silicone though - you can't paint it and the fumes contaminate your paintwork.

I'd say it was absolutely worth it as it costs pennies and is dead easy to do, but to make the water runoff even better more needs to be done. Firstly the channel outside of the drain hole needs to be added to to stop the water flowing down the A pillar by the door bellows/hinges. Secondly if you park the van facing even slightly downhill then the water fills up the scuttle and overflows into the engine bay, over the air filter housing and the pollen filter/battery. A centre drain would solve that issue but it's a fair bit more work. I'll be adding one someday and I'll document it.

 

[Dubnity]

Blimey, I'm going to have to fix a better way than just those holes then as previously mentioned 👍

 

[AndyWT]

What many miss is that the drain holes are only part of the problem, on the picture of the LH inner wing highlighted in blue is the other issue, there’s a huge gap between the inner wing/A pillar and the wing, on picture of the fitted wing highlighted in red is the gap. Any debrie laying there is blown into the wing void.

On my RH side i have extended the existing high portion to fully close off the gap, its a little fiddly as it needs the wing needs to hook over it and extend to the A—pilar, so far it works although I haven‘t blocked off the round hole, this i did 2 years ago and removing both wings last year there was minimal **** accumulated, why only the RH side? well I‘m in Italy and the curb side collects the most **** due to being nearer to tree‘s etc and the camber of the road.

 

[AndyWT]

It’s getting very PC on here, **** (#rap) is deleted every time, some one needs to get a life